8o LUTHER BURBANK 



beautiful in a unique gown, striped and shaded with rosy 

 crimson, purple, and white. Another almost as popular 

 was gorgeous in crimson, slightly tinged with pink, heavily 

 banded, dotted, and flaked with white. 



It would be impossible to describe all the magnificent 

 gowns of the lovely graduates. Queen Rose attended the 

 reception clad in all her beauty, but even she was equalled 

 in gorgeousness of dress, for since the establishment of the 

 plant school no class had left its corridors in such splendid 

 array. 



When beholding a gorgeous sunset with its varied deli- 

 cate shades and brilliant colorings one may catch a glimpse 

 of that splendor which was woven into the gowns of the 

 sunset class. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

 THE RAINBOW CLASS 



In the little New England garden of Burbank's child- 

 hood home grew the old-fashioned gladiolus. It had a 

 tall stalk with a number of small, brownish crimson, lily- 

 shaped flowers. The flowers were all on one side of the 

 stem, and bloomed irregularly; those that first opened 

 were faded and dying before the slower ones greeted the 

 summer sunshine.- Thus the flower stalk was never per- 

 fect, and the faded blossoms had to be removed else the 

 plant presented a ragged, untidy appearance. 



